


Octo Expulsion

by QuadSquelcher



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Abduction Content Warning, Action/Adventure, Gen, Typical Splatoon Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-07-28 11:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16240373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuadSquelcher/pseuds/QuadSquelcher
Summary: It has been two weeks since countless Octolings found paradise in Inkopolis. Just when everything began to seem perfect, a new threat rises and Octolings start to go missing. With the help of his new friends, Agent 8 must fight for the safety of his fellow Octolings, as well as himself.





	1. The Wake Up Call

**Author's Note:**

> In these intro chapters, a scared Octoling girl runs to safety, and Agent 8 wakes up to a shocking surprise.
> 
> Please keep in mind that this is my first attempt at writing, so constructive criticism is both encouraged and appreciated, as it is the only way my writing can improve.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Prologue

If anyone were around on Kelp Street at 10:46pm they could catch a quick glimpse of a young Octoling girl sprinting through the shadows, only visible in the brief moments she ran under the LED street lights. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single cephalopod present to witness her except the three sketchy figures chasing her down, their eyes locked on the speedy octo. Despite the overwhelming sense of fear that filled her heart, her mind was focused and her movements were swift. She leaped over outdoor dining tables and parked cars with ease, she made sharp turns into connecting streets and alleys, and she kept facing forward, never looking back at her pursuers in hopes that they would give up and leave her be.

They didn’t.

One of the three aggressors unhooked a magenta burst bomb from his belt and hurled it at the girl’s feet with great accuracy. She stumbled forward from the blast of ink, but quickly regained her balance and continued her dash, ignoring the splotches of ink on her red and black Squidkid IV shoes and green zip-up hoodie.

It had been two weeks since the girl moved to Inkopolis. She left behind her life as a soldier in Octo Valley to pursue a more stress-free way of living, and that’s exactly what she had until this very moment. In the two weeks that she lived in the great city of color, she had found a home, befriended a very kind Inkling, and became obsessed with turf war like anyone else would. It was a new kind of bliss that she never knew before in the subterranean domes of Octo Valley. The octoling girl was certain she would live here forever. Now her old life was coming back to get her.

This was the first hostile encounter she had in Inkopolis, and she never thought it would be from her own kind.

“Buzz off!” she shouted at the Octolings chasing her. “I told you I’m never going back!”

Of course, the girl wasn’t running through the city aimlessly, she had a clear goal in mind. There was the beautiful Beluga Bridge, which was covered in colorful lights, and led to the forest across the river where she would hide until the other Octolings lost her. Once they were gone, she would go home. At this point, that bridge wasn’t too far away. The brilliant blue glow from the LED lights shone like a beacon of hope for the scared Octoling. “I’m going to make it!” she thought to herself. “I’ll make it to the forest and they’ll never be able to find me!”

That optimism was short lived though, as the girl caught a glimpse of a ferry on the river approaching Beluga Bridge. Obviously, she knew what this meant, and her heart sank to her stomach. Suddenly the soft blue glow turned into a harsh red, so bright it almost hurt to look at. Electric motors in the ground on either side of the bridge roared to life, and the structure slowly began to move as a loud automated voice blared from the speakers mounted on lamp posts. “WARNING. RAISING BRIDGE. PLEASE STAND CLEAR.” The only fragment of hope that she had was stripped from her in that very moment. “No, no, no, no!!!” she cried as she came to a sudden halt and looked up at the two halves of the bridge that reached towards the starry night sky. What was her best chance of escape was now a dead end. She was stuck!

Hesitantly, she turned her head to look back at her pursuers to see that they weren’t advancing towards her as quickly as before. Now the three of them were walking towards her, rather calmly, surprisingly. There was no need for them to run, they knew they had her cornered. However the girl was still psyched up and full of vim and vigor. She raised her fists and yelled at the approaching Octolings. “You better get back! It may have been a while but I still know my CQC!”

The Octoling boy in the middle slowly advanced towards her, and the light from the street lamps shone down his face, revealing his unsettling appearance, complete with a ponytail and eye patch over his left eye. “Oh, that won’t be necessary, Ollie. I would hate to hurt a dear old friend.”

“Friend?!” Ollie fumed. “I’m not your friend, Julian! I already told you, I’m not going back to Octo Valley and you can’t change my mind!”

Julian crossed his arms over his light bomber jacket as he grinded his white boot against the concrete. “You know… I’m not the only one who would love to see you back in the domes. You had quite the reputation there. With all that fighting skill you got, it would be a shame to see it wasted on those childish Turf War games. With you, the Octarian army could do great things. Believe me when I say that this is what’s best for you-”

“Who are you to decide what’s best for me?! You don’t know how much this city means to me! You don’t know how much I care for my new Inkling friends! You don’t know anything!!” Out of sheer anger, Ollie stomped her feet on the ground so hard it caused her green hair to flail around. “You keep saying that you care for the wellbeing of all Octolings but I know you only care about your stupid army!”

Julian paused for a moment. He took a glance at his two henchmen who were standing by his sides, both of whom were wearing standard Octoling soldier gear, then looked back at Ollie with a concerned expression on his face. “So that’s what you really think of me, huh?”

Ollie crossed her arms and nodded stubbornly.

“I see,” Julian hissed. “So these… Inkling friends of yours, do they know you’re an Octoling?”

Ollie blinked in surprise to the question. She wondered why he cared or why it was important. “No? What does it matter?” she asked, clearly irritated.

“So you don’t trust them?” Julian replied.

“WHAT?! Of course I trust them! In fact, I trust them more than anyone I knew in Octo Valley!”

“If you trust them so much, what’s stopping you from telling them what you are?”

“Well, I mean,” Ollie hesitated, a drop of sweat falling down her forehead. “I dunno, it just- it just seemed to early to tell them, I guess. I uh- I never really knew how to bring it up.”

Julian’s face went blank. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Huh, alright.” He shook his head and let out a disappointed sigh. “What a sad excuse of a friendship.” Julian raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Before Ollie could react to anything, the Octoling henchman on Julian’s left pulled out a pistol and shot a stream of tranquilizer ink at Ollie’s neck. She cried out in shock, tried to wipe it off, but by then her hands already went numb, her legs felt like jelly, and her vision began to blur. “Please…” she begged. “This is my home…”

Slowly and calmly, Julian walked right up to her as she clearly struggled to stay standing. “You don’t belong here,” he whispered while staring directly into her bright pink eyes. His words cut into her heart like a hot knife. Tears began to roll down her pale cheeks right before she lost consciousness and collapsed onto the cold concrete. Julian signaled to the other henchman, who had then come to gently scoop up Ollie into his arms. “Your true friends will be so delighted to see your return,” Julian whispered as he caressed her face to wipe the tears away.

Satisfied with their work, the three Octolings turned around, walked off with their latest victim, and disappeared into the night.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1: The Wake Up Call

Morning sunlight shone through the blinds on the living room windows, surrounding Marina Ida’s house in a comforting glow. Although breakfast had been made well over an hour ago, the sweet smell of coffee and freshly made waffles still lingered in the kitchen and living room.

“Eiiiight?? It’s 11 o’clock! You gonna come down for breakfast sometime soon?” the Octoling idol called, hoping for a response from upstairs. “Eight?” She guessed he must be listening to music with headphones on. She got up from her seat at the dining table, which was cluttered with loose papers and her laptop. She walked up the stairwell to the upper floor, and made her way to Agent 8’s temporary bedroom.

It was two weeks ago when Marina assisted Agent 8 in escaping from the dark depths of the Deepsea Metro. Since then, she allowed him to live with her until he found his own place to live. She enjoyed his company- even if he didn’t talk much- so she was more than happy to help him get a head start on his new life in Inkopolis.

Upon entering his room, Marina was shocked to find that he had not been listening to music like she thought. The kid was still sound asleep! “Oh you gotta be squidding me!!” she shouted. “Eight!! It’s past eleven! It’s time to wake up, for crying out loud!”

Her yelling didn’t seem to bring any reaction from the sleeping cephalopod, he just continued snoring loudly. Frustrated, she instead tried gently nudging his shoulder. No response. She shook his shoulder with more force this time, yet still nothing. “Yeesh, hard to believe this is the same dude who saved our city from getting completely sauced,” she muttered to herself, arms crossed. It was pretty clear to Marina that waking him up was going to be a challenge.

“If Pearl were here, what would she do?” she asked herself. Pearl certainly had a way of making noise, however it was not polite at all! If Marina were to use Pearl’s method, it would be incredibly rude of her to do to her friend.

… but it would work. It would work really, really well.

Marina let out a deep sigh and left the room. She returned a minute later carrying her electric guitar and an amplifier. She plugged the amp into the electrical outlet and turned the volume up to max. As she held the guitar, she raised her arm up in preparation to create the single loudest riff she ever dared to make. “I’m really sorry about this, but…” she strummed the guitar, and in that very moment the whole room erupted in a thunderous roar loud enough to shake the ground and shatter the windows in the room. Eight screamed as he flailed around, falling out of his bed and hitting his head on the floor. Marina just giggled. “Sorry… but you were making things more difficult than it had to be.”

Eight pouted on the floor with his arms crossed. He glanced at his broken window, then looked back to Marina with a stern look.

“Oh, don’t worry about the window,” she assured. “I can have it replaced today. The cost to have it fixed is like pocket change for me! Anyway, get dressed and come downstairs, there’s something important I need to talk to you about.” Marina left the room and proceeded back to the lower level.

Shards of glass were scattered around the carpet floor, so Eight had to be careful not to hurt himself as he stood up. He looked around the room for any other damage to his belongings. The music CD’s on his dresser had fallen over but appeared unharmed, the monitor on his computer desk was intact, and his collection of Squidvader action figures mounted on the shelf were A-OK for the most part; a few had fallen on the floor. The digital clock on his nightstand read ‘11:28am,’ Eight was surprised he had slept for so long.

Eight changed out of his green squid pattern pajamas and into his legging shorts and fresh octo t-shirt, which matched his golden yellow eyes. Not the most fashionable clothing, but it’s the best he had at the moment. He then walked over to his wall-mounted mirror to see that he had quite the case of bed head. His curled purple tentacle was all messed up and hanging from the side of his head, but once he combed it, it was hanging in front of his light skinned forehead, just how he liked it! Now happy with his appearance, he left his room and started making his way downstairs to meet up with Marina.

The hall outside of Eight’s bedroom had its walls decorated with several framed photographs, most of which were of Marina being together with Pearl, others were of Marina during her time in the engineering division of Octo Valley. The photo by the stairwell showed Marina in her old Octoling soldier gear squatting in front of the original Octobot King as it was being constructed. The big smile on her face made it look like she was very proud of the weapon she had designed, as if she was saying, “yeah! I made this! Isn’t it awesome?”

As Eight descended down the stairwell, he got a pleasant whiff of the smell of waffles, and could already feel his mouth watering. He ran into the kitchen to see Marina already pulling a pan chock full of squid and octopus shaped waffles out of the oven. “Hope you’re hungry, buddy! I made enough to last for several days!” she laughed as she set the pan down on a cloth on the table. Eight pulled up a seat at the table and started plopping waffles down onto his plate, picking out only the squid shaped ones. He had topped the waffles with whipped cream and cinnamon sugar before pouring maple syrup all over the mountain of sugar and starch in front of him. The young Octoling boy began stuffing his face with the delicious waffles, and his plate was empty in less than two minutes. “Oh my cod! Did- did you even TASTE those?!” Marina asked with a worried look on her face. Eight just nodded in response with a goofy smile.

Marina chuckled. “Anyway! There’s something I need to tell you about,” she began, turning her laptop to face Eight. “Captain Cuttlefish sent me a message earlier this morning. You remember him, right? He says he needs you to go see him as soon as you can.” She pulled up Woogle Maps on the laptop, and pointed to a small corner of Inkopolis Square. “These days, the new Squidbeak Splatoon hangs out in a place called Cuttlefish Cabin, but the entrance is hidden here. You can find it in a manhole by Ammo Nights, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.” She passed Eight his train passcard. “You remember how to get to the Square, right?”

Eight smiled and nodded.

“Okay great! You should get going as soon as you can. Don’t want to keep the Cap’n waiting!”

Eight slid the passcard into his pocket, got up from the table, and headed towards the front door where he slid on his pair of Cream Basics shoes. He opened the door to head out, but was stopped when he heard Marina call him. “Hey, one more thing.” Eight turned to face her.

“Take care out there, alright?”

In response, Eight gave her a confident grin and a thumbs-up. With that, he left the house, closed the door behind him, and excitedly ran off towards the train station.


	2. A New Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, Agent 8 arrives at Cuttlefish Cabin and meets an unexpected friend.

Chapter 2: A New Light

“Good morning, and welcome to the Inkopolis transit system,” announced the automated voice over the train’s intercom. “The current time is 11:43am. Your next destination is Inkopolis Square.”

Agent 8 was seated near the back of the train, looking through his window as the train departed from the station, watching as the city scenery passed him by. The skyscrapers that towered overhead glistened in the late morning sun like stars on a cloudless night. It was a sight Eight had seen several times in the two weeks he lived in the city, and yet he couldn’t help but gaze in awe each time. It was something so ordinary- mundane even- to the Inklings who grew up in a world like this, and yet the young Octoling boy had never seen anything quite as amazing.

There were times when he walked the streets downtown, and he would just stare straight up to the very top of each building the same way a child would, often causing him to clumsily bump into unseen pedestrians. When you’ve lived most of your life underground, that splendor never seems to fade.

His focus on the view was lost lost however when he felt his shellphone vibrate in his pocket, indicating he received a text message. He pulled out the octopus shaped phone, swiped his finger across the screen, then double tapped the text notification. Upon viewing the message, Eight was baffled to see that it was written in very strange lettering that he did not recognize, looking very similar to Inkling text, but something didn’t seem right. It took him a moment to realize what was wrong.

_The fool was holding his phone upside down._

He blinked in surprise as he flipped his phone around, and the words on the screen finally began to make sense. The message he received had been sent from Marina. “Hey Eight! I forgot to tell you earlier, but Pearl says we might have a really cool announcement today, so keep an eye out for that!!” The rest of Marina’s message was just a bunch of winky face and octopus emojis. While returning his phone to his pocket, Eight pondered what this special announcement could be. Outside of Turf War stage rotations, he had never seen Marina and Pearl announce anything out of the ordinary, with the exception of that very strange event they hosted where the whole city fought furiously over orange juice. He couldn’t remember exactly what the name of the event was. What did everyone call it? The slap fest? Is that what today’s announcement is going to be? Another slap fest?

Dwelling over the possibilities of this mystery announcement, Eight’s gaze turned back to the city scenery outside the train window, watching as the towering skyscrapers of downtown Inkopolis gradually drew closer and closer with each passing minute. About six minutes passed when Deca Tower was finally within view, meaning Eight’s stop was coming up, and he started shaking excitedly in his seat.

Every visit to Inkopolis Square was it’s own thrill, whether he was participating in the Turf Wars, or just gazing at the fresh clothes at the Galleria. If he wasn’t on his way to important meetup with Captain Cuttlefish, Eight would’ve loved to socialize with the dozens of Inklings hanging out all around the Square. There was just something so wonderful about that place. Maybe it was the music playing over the speakers, or maybe it was all the Inklings chatting amongst themselves, but whatever it was, it created a welcoming aura that made Eight feel like this is where he belonged. That this was his home.

The train hissed as it reached the station across the street from the Square, and the automated voice crackled over the intercom once again. “You have arrived at your destination. Please remember to check your seat for personal belongings. Thank you for riding with the Inkopolis transit system. Stay fresh, stay safe.”

Eight hurriedly exited the train alongside several others, and beelined straight towards the Square through the construction zone, eyes locked on Deca Tower, which had the colossal Great Zapfish coiled cozily around it. Approaching the yellow fence that blocked his way into the Square, he picked up speed until he was running at a full sprint and leaped into the fence. Right before he collided with the gate, he transformed into his octopus form, slipped through the small holes, then plopped onto the concrete.

After turning back into his Octoling form, his eyes glimmered in admiration as he gazed out towards Inkopolis Square, which was populated with dozens of Inklings clad in the freshest clothing that made Eight’s yellow t-shirt look bland in comparison. But hey, at least it came with a cute pin!

Making his way through the Square, and only stopping briefly when a very nice looking front zip vest caught his eye in the display window at Ye Olde Cloth Shoppe, Eight finally stepped up to the sewer manhole Marina told him about. Peering through the grates, he could see only endless darkness, making him wonder if there was even an end to the deep tunnel. He kneeled down, picked up a small nearby pebble, and dropped it into the hole. He never heard it hitting bottom. He began to hesitate, although, Marina _did_ say this was the entryway to the new Squidbeak Splatoon’s hideout, so surely it couldn’t be dangerous, right? It would be a pretty crummy entrance if you could get yourself hurt that easily.

He made up his mind. Stepping back, he readied himself to jump into the manhole, until he got distracted by the sound of someone’s shellphone ringing. Looking over to his right, Eight found the sound coming from an Inkling boy sitting on the bench outside the front entrance of the Turf War lobby.

The boy pulled his squid shaped phone from his pocket, and held it up to his ear. “Hello?” He let out a relaxed sigh. “Hey mum… Doin’ great, mum… I’m just out for a while, that’s all… I’m at the Square, mum… Yes mum, I’ll be home tonight… No mum, I’m actually looking for Zach… Yes mum, you met him… He came over last weekend, mum… He’s the guy with the fancy hairstyle… Yes mum, the new hairstyle that came around a couple weeks ago… Yes, he’s the one who spilled coffee on our rug… Yeah that’s him. That’s Zach… No, mum, he’s just-” The boy let out a heavier sigh and rubbed his fingers against his eyes in frustration. “It’s just no one seems to know where he is lately! A couple days ago he stopped replying to anyone’s messages, which is preeetty strange for him. This morning I went over to his house to check on him and the place seemed empty! So now I’m out searching high and low for this guy. I was so sure he’d be at the Square but, I was wrong I guess.”

The look on the boy’s face turned from one of annoyment to one of genuine concern. “Uh, I’m gonna keep looking for him, ma. I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually… Yeah don’t worry, mum. I’ll still be home tonight… Yes, mum… I’ll see you soon… I love you too, mum… Bye, mum.” He hung up and returned his phone to his pocket before running his hands down his face and letting out one last, heavy sigh. “It’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be okay,” he whispered to himself. “We’re gonna find him. It’s all gonna be okay.” The boy got up from the bench, and walked off out of sight.

Eight couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the boy, it was clear that he was under some serious stress, and understandably so. Having a close friend go missing would be really scary, especially in a city as big as Inkopolis.

And what was the deal with that new hairstyle he mentioned? Was it some kind of new fad? Is it what all the cool kids are doing lately?

Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t too important.

Regaining his focus, Eight stood over the manhole, took a deep breath, and without looking down he turned into his octopus form and slipped through the grates. Sliding down the metal pipe, he descended deeper and deeper until suddenly down became up, up became down, and was now falling upwards until he exited through another manhole grate, causing him to fly through the air and land clumsily on the ground.

When he stood up, he found himself on a strange floating island suspended over a massive chasm. A small, old cabin lay near a clearing at the foot of an overarching rock formation resembling a tangled mass of octopus tentacles. The cabin had several orange lantern hanging from it’s red roof which swayed gently in the chilly breeze. Was this the cabin Marina had told him about?

Examining the old shack further, Eight was surprised to find a very familiar looking old telephone hanging from the cabin’s side. Eight glared intensely at the old phone, fists clenched, ready to fight, until an unexpected voice from behind caused him to jump.

“HEY YOU!!!”

Eight quickly turned around to see that the person behind him was a cheery looking Inkling girl with hair as yellow as the sun, and a smile just as bright!

“Oh! Did I startle you? Sorry ‘bout that, I just get excited when I meet new people!” She reached out her hand to offer a handshake. “I’m Agent 4! But my actual name is Nova, so you can just call me that if you’d like!”

He was still a bit shaken up from being startled like that, so Eight was a bit hesitant at first, but she seemed to have meant well so, he shook Nova’s hand while smiling nervously.

“You’re Agent 8, right? Captain Cuttlefish said you were coming. It’s so nice to finally meet you! Agent 3 and the Captain told me all about how you escaped from that creepy underground facility where you like, lost your memory and had to go through a buncha weird test chambers, and then Three was brainwashed by evil toothpaste and he squidnapped the Captain but you saved them both and that was SO COOL!! Oh! And then there was this giant statue that rose out of the ocean and was all like ‘I’m gonna destroy the world!!’ but then you were like ‘nuh uh’ and went like ‘BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM,’” she blabbered as she imitated the motion of firing a Splattershot with her hands.

Not knowing what to say in response to the strange girl reciting recent experiences that he already could remember very clearly, Eight just smiled and nodded awkwardly.

“Ah, glad to see you two getting along already,” said a familiar voice from behind. Eight looked over to see Captain Cuttlefish hobbling over to him and Nova, bamboo cane in hand.

“Heya, Captain!” Nova replied. “Me and Eight are just getting to know each other! I think we’re gonna be great friends!!”

“That’s good, ye see. It’s actually why I called you two squiddos here in the first place.” Captain Cuttlefish took quick notice of Eight’s confused look. “Er- I mean, squiddo and octo. Um, Agent Eight, I can’t help but feel that we haven’t given you a proper introduction to Inkopolis yet. Agent 4 and I were discussing it earlier, and-”

“AND I WANNA SHOW YOU AROUND THE CITY!!” Nova blurted out excitedly, interrupting the Captain. “I can take you to see all the shops, the arcade, the sketchy egg collecting place that smells like old fish, even some of the places outside the Square! Inkopolis is your new home, so I want to do everything I can to make sure you feel welcome here!”

Eight paused for a moment. It took him a few seconds to process that someone he barely knew was being this kind to him, and a slight- yet genuine- smile formed on his face. Suddenly he didn’t feel as uncomfortable around the weird yellow squid girl, seeing as she truly seemed to care about him. Come to think of it, Eight couldn’t think of a time anyone was this friendly to him! Then again, that could be due to the memory loss from a couple weeks back. Either way, he was grateful that Nova was willing to take time out of her day to show him around, and was eager to explore the city with his newest friend.

“Hey by the way,” Nova began, “if you don’t mind me asking, do you remember what your name is?”

That was a good question. It’s not something he really thought about since coming to the surface. He got so used to being called ‘Eight’ that he didn’t bother figuring out what is actual name was, and now that he was finally thinking it over, he couldn’t recall anything about it. Eight just shook his head and shrugged in response.

“Aww, that’s a shame. I just as ‘cuz it feels weird referring to you as just a number,” Nova said as she pressed her fingers against her chin. “Would it be cool if I think of a nickname for you?”

Eight smiled and gave her a thumbs-up in approval.

“Okay sweet! Anyway, we should probably get going now before the shops get too crowded.” Nova turned to face Captain Cuttlefish. “You got everything under control here, Cap?”

“Aye,” the Captain confirmed. “I’ll keep the ol’ cabin looked after. You kids go have fun.”

“You heard the Captain!” Nova cheered. “C'mon Eight, let's get going!!” She grabbed Eight by the hand, pulling him with her as she ran to the manhole.

A look of startled confusion could briefly be seen on Eight's face before he fell through the grates along with Nova.

“Stay safe out there!” Captain Cuttlefish called after the two kids as they disappeared into the darkness within the metal pipe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize it took so long to get this update out. I had several technical issues with my computer, and real life issues slowed my progress significantly.


End file.
